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To develop an old media dictum, a ball boy kicking a footballer, now that would be news. The Eden Hazard incident (1) was always going to have legs as a story because of its ‘shock horror’ value. Its inherent symbolism, a Goliath kicking a David, would guarantee that. As has emerged, there were nuances of […]

I’m sometimes asked for a magic number – the number of top clubs which have gone into Administration. It’s difficult give a simple answer because: Administration is a misleading basis for counting. Clubs can be wound up without ever going into Administration. A better measure is ‘insolvency event’, a term which can however be defined […]

It’s increasingly difficult to see any magic in the beautiful game other than black magic, especially when you look at it from a financial perspective. You only need to think of the narrow escapes at Plymouth and Wrexham recently, and both Portsmouth and Darlington are standing on the edge of the precipice. The Cups may […]

In the last couple of weeks, stadiums, both those which are newly planned and those where there has been or will be redevelopment, have being popping up on my radar screen with surprising regularity. The saga of what to do with the Olympic stadium shows no signs of reaching resolution. Sadly we seem to be […]

So, the transfer window finally slammed shut, to use the mandatory cliché, amid the predictable hype. In one respect this was hardly surprising – of the 289 August deals reported by the BBC (1), no fewer than 93, or 32%, had taken place on the final day. In total 141 (49%) had taken place in […]

Currently I’m working on a joint research project on various European football leagues with colleagues in Austria. One set of data which we have produced so far casts some light on this perenial debate. The latest version of the date centres of course on whether Liverpool ‘have fallen out of the Top 4’, and/or whether […]

I managed to follow the great play-off between AFC Wimbledon (to whom, many congratulations) and Luton Town (to whom, commiserations) at least live online. Football at its most exciting. I wonder if Andy Burnham chose quite the right words though when he tweeted “Wimbledon back in Football League. Brilliant. A great victory for all football […]

There are reports that a Dubai Sheikh is set to buy a La Liga team, possibly Getafe, and add the words ‘Team Dubai’ to the club’s name (1). This is as absurd as Manchester City becoming Manchester City Team Abu Dhabi, for example, or Chelsea becoming Chelsea Team Chukotka, only to be renamed Chelsea Team […]

Yes, it’s the Gunfight at the Cobham Coral saga. For those of you not up-to-date with the jargon of Higher Education, an intern is someone who, in Old Speak, was on an industrial placement from a sandwich course. Typically this would be the third year of a four year undergraduate degree programme. The thinking is […]

As Plymouth Argyle fans come to terms with their club being in Administration, they can look along the South coast to Portsmouth to see that things can get better. On Thursday UHY Hacker Young, Pompey’s Administrators announced “the completion of the Club’s Company Voluntary Arrangement and exit from Administration on 24 February 2011. On 10 […]

I haven’t been enjoying lunch lately. Nothing to do with the food in the university canteen; it’s my daily read of The Guardian I blame. That Matt Scott in particular had me choking today (1) over my vegetarian shepherds pie, although the oxymoron itself hadn’t put me in the best of moods. I was so […]

Watching the transfer window lurch to its conclusion has not been an edifying experience – I didn’t have high expectations mind you, and my thoughts were possibly coloured by the constantly breaking internet connection at the hotel in Central Europe where I am staying. Certainly I was slightly surprised to read last Friday, from my […]

You certainly notice the presence of Premier League clubs in Kenya (where I’ve just been on a somewhat delayed ‘summer’ holiday). Well, of the predictable few. Arsenal are, on the basis of an entirely unsystematic and unscientific survey of shirts and baseball caps and a pretty small sample, the clear number one English club of […]

Manchester City’s financial results, published earlier this week (1), were generally reported uncritically earlier this week, notwithstanding the key loss of £121m, with the exception at least of The Sun (2), where there was some attempt to look beyond the positive headlining provided by the club. According to the club, the financial highlights could be […]

The transfer window just isn’t what it used to be. I found myself habitually clicking to find the latest news from the BBC website and checking Twitter, but there just wasn’t much happening. Even on the final day, there wasn’t much action to follow, unless you are a Stoke City, Spurs or Sunderland fan. As […]